


A Shift in the Wind

by Icarus



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Slytherin, The Quidditch Pitch: Slytherin Common Room
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-08-02
Updated: 2006-08-02
Packaged: 2018-10-25 18:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10769607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icarus/pseuds/Icarus
Summary: It's New Year's Eve, and Snape has new friends.





	A Shift in the Wind

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Annie, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Quidditch Pitch](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Quidditch_Pitch), which went offline in 2015 when the hosting expired, at a time I was not able to renew it. I contacted Open Doors, hoping to preserve the archive using an old backup, and began importing these works as an Open Doors-approved project in April 2017. Open Doors e-mailed all authors about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Quidditch Pitch collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thequidditchpitch/profile).

  
Author's notes: Written for HP Shortfics, the challenge: New Year's Eve. Hilariously, Isolde and I both wrote a bitter Snape, the chime of the clock, and drinking. The mood of our pieces were almost identical, if separated by decades in time.  


* * *

Severus Snape stared over the top of his cup of mulled cider, eyes focused on some unseen point beyond the fog of his breath on the darkened window. The chime of his family's grandfather clock struck twelve, filling the silent sitting room with noise, then fell still. 

Muggles still had their Christmas lights up. Plastic reindeer and glowing fat Santa Clauses. The distant cheer of a party could be heard through the thin walls of his home. His 'ancestral hall.' Severus bitterly remembered Lucius Malfoy's first and only visit here, the sneer and slightly helpless glance around for the expected house-elf to take his coat. 

Figures darker than the night staggered through the slush, laughing drunkenly. Muggles, he assured himself. That's what he thought of them now. Not his neighbors or anything related to him. Fat, useless creatures with no class or breeding, much like the cheap ornaments they stuck in their windows. Nothing to do with him. His windows were dark, hiding… secrets they could never imagine in their wildest dreams. He had… bigger plans after midnight. A slow smile crept across his face. 

Shoes clicked down the steps behind him. "Severus?" 

"Yes, mother," Severus said, in a carefully cultivated accent his former friends made fun of. 

"What are doing sitting in the dark?" Her hand was on the banister, her hair tied up in a tight bun. 

"Nothing," Severus said. Yet. 

"Well, go to bed," she said, scowling. "It's past midnight already." 

"Mam, it's New Year's!" Severus complained, turning towards her. She gave him a steady stare. 

"What are you drinking?" 

"Just cider," Severus said. 

She sighed, and relented. "You can stay up for another hour, but then to bed with you." Severus nodded absently, already dismissing her from his mind as she climbed the stairs. She'd take a Muggle sleeping pill and be out for hours. 

At half-past, the expected knock came. Twice on the window frame. Severus pulled the window-frame open for his new conspirators. They were going to rid the world of Muggles. And their stupid parties. 

Or conspirator, rather. Just one fat wizard sat outside his window, crouching fearfully. 

"Hurry up, let me in!" he said in a stage whisper. 

Peter fucking Pettigrew. 


End file.
